AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EST – The Journal
AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EST
Japan bans entry of foreign visitors as omicron spreads
TOKYO (AP) – Japan announced Monday it will suspend entry of all foreign visitors from around the world as a new coronavirus variant spreads.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the measure will take effect Tuesday.
The decision means Japan will restore border controls that it eased earlier this month for short-term business visitors, foreign students and workers.
Over the weekend, Japan tightened entry restrictions for people arriving from South Africa and eight other countries, requiring them to undergo a 10-day quarantine period at government-designated facilities.
Many countries have moved to tighten their borders after the new omicron variant of the coronavirus was found in a number of nations.
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Supreme Court set to take up all-or-nothing abortion fight
WASHINGTON (AP) – Both sides are telling the Supreme Court there’s no middle ground in Wednesday’s showdown over abortion. The justices can either reaffirm the constitutional right to an abortion or wipe it away altogether.
Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that declared a nationwide right to abortion, is facing its most serious challenge in 30 years in front of a court with a 6-3 conservative majority that has been remade by three appointees of President Donald Trump.
“There are no half measures here,” said Sherif Girgis, a Notre Dame law professor who once served as a law clerk for Justice Samuel Alito.
A ruling that overturned Roe and the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey would lead to outright bans or severe restrictions on abortion in 26 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
The case being argued Wednesday comes from Mississippi, where a 2018 law would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, well before viability. The Supreme Court has never allowed states to ban abortion before the point at roughly 24 weeks when a fetus can survive outside the womb.
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Fauci fires back at Cruz over COVID claims about Chinese lab
WASHINGTON (AP) – Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, blasted Sen. Ted Cruz for suggesting that Fauci be investigated for statements he made about COVID-19 and said the criticism by the Texas Republican was an attack on science.
“I should be prosecuted? What happened on Jan. 6, senator?” Fauci, who is President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” It was a reference to the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump that was stoked as Cruz helped lead GOP objections to Congress’ certifying the 2020 election results.
“I’m just going to do my job and I’m going to be saving lives, and they’re going to be lying,” Fauci said.
Some Republicans, including Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have accused Fauci of lying to Congress when he denied in May that the National Institutes of Health funded “gain of function” research – the practice of enhancing a virus in a lab to study its potential impact in the real world – at a virology lab in Wuhan, China. Cruz has urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Fauci’s statements.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the GOP criticism nonsense.
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EXPLAINER: What we know and don’t know on new COVID variant
LONDON (AP) – South African scientists identified a new version of the coronavirus that they say is behind a recent spike in COVID-19 infections in Gauteng, the country’s most populous province.
It’s unclear where the new variant first emerged, but scientists in South Africa alerted the World Health Organization in recent days, and it has now been seen in travelers arriving in several countries, from Australia to Israel to the Netherlands.
On Friday, the WHO designated it as a “variant of concern,” naming it “omicron” after a letter in the Greek alphabet.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT OMICRON?
Health Minister Joe Phaahla said the variant was linked to an “exponential rise” of cases in the last few days.
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WHO criticizes travel bans on southern African countries
JOHANNESBURG (AP) – The World Health Organization on Sunday urged countries around the world not to impose flight bans on southern African nations due to concerns over the new omicron variant.
WHO’s regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, called on countries to follow science and international health regulations in order to avoid using travel restrictions.
“Travel restrictions may play a role in slightly reducing the spread of COVID-19 but place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods,” Moeti said in a statement. “If restrictions are implemented, they should not be unnecessarily invasive or intrusive, and should be scientifically based, according to the International Health Regulations, which is a legally binding instrument of international law recognized by over 190 nations.”
Moeti praised South Africa for following international health regulations and informing WHO as soon as its national laboratory identified the omicron variant.
“The speed and transparency of the South African and Botswana governments in informing the world of the new variant is to be commended,” said Moeti. “WHO stands with African countries which had the courage to boldly share life-saving public health information, helping protect the world against the spread of COVID-19.”
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Brothers to take center stage in Jussie Smollett trial
CHICAGO (AP) – Two brothers stand at the center of the case that prosecutors will lay before jurors when the trial of Jussie Smollett begins this week.
The former “Empire” actor contends he was the victim of a racist and homophobic assault in downtown Chicago on a frigid night in January 2019. The siblings, who worked with him on the TV show, say he paid them $3,500 to pose as his attackers.
Smollett is accused of lying to police about the alleged attack and has been charged with felony disorderly conduct. A class 4 felony, the crime carries a sentence of up to three years in prison but experts have said it is more likely that if Smollett is convicted he would be placed on probation and perhaps ordered to perform community service.
Whether the Black and openly gay Smollett testifies remains an open question. But the siblings, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, will take the witness stand where they are expected to repeat what they have told police officers and prosecutors – that they carried out the attack at Smollett’s behest.
Jurors also may see surveillance video from more than four dozen cameras that police reviewed to trace the brothers’ movements before and after the reported attack, as well as a video showing the brothers purchasing a red hat, ski masks and gloves from a beauty supply shop hours earlier.
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In French Pantheon, Josephine Baker makes history yet again
PARIS (AP) – France is inducting Josephine Baker – Missouri-born cabaret dancer, French World War II spy and civil rights activist – into its Pantheon, the first Black woman honored in the final resting place of France’s most revered luminaries.
On Tuesday, a coffin carrying soils from the U.S., France and Monaco – places where Baker made her mark – will be deposited inside the domed Pantheon monument overlooking the Left Bank of Paris. Her body will stay in Monaco, at the request of her family.
French President Emmanuel Macron decided on her entry into the Pantheon, responding to a petition. In addition to honoring an exceptional figure in French history, the move is meant to send a message against racism and celebrate U.S.-French connections.
“She embodies, before anything, women’s freedom,” Laurent Kupferman, the author of the petition for the move, told The Associated Press.
Baker was born in 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri. At 19, having already divorced twice, had relationships with men and women, and started a performing career, she moved to France following a job opportunity.
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Northwest residents urged to stay alert as storms roll in
Weather officials urged Northwest residents to remain alert Sunday as more rain was predicted to fall in an area with lingering water from extreme weather earlier this month.
“There’s some good news and some pending news,” said Steve Reedy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
The weather service on Saturday warned that flooding was possible through Sunday in northwestern Washington, but an atmospheric river – a huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into the Northwest – moved farther north into Canada than expected overnight.
“The impacts weren’t quite as bad as we were anticipating during the overnight period,” Reedy said.
After a respite, rain reentered the area later Sunday, which could cause some “nuisance flooding,” he said.
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Leftist claims victory in Honduran vote, setting up showdown
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) – Leftist opposition candidate Xiomara Castro claimed victory in Honduras’ presidential election Sunday, setting up a showdown with the National Party which said its candidate had won a vote that could end the conservative party’s 12 years in power.
“We win! We win!” Castro, Honduras’ former first lady who is making her third presidential run, told cheering Liberty and Re-foundation party supporters. ”Today the people have made justice. We have reversed authoritarianism.”
Preliminary results released late Sunday by the Electoral Council showed Castro with 53% of the votes and Asfura with 34%, but with just 16% of voting stations counted. The council said turnout was more than 68%.
Honduras’ long-ruling National Party announced on its Twitter account that its candidate, Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry Asfura, had won.
The competing claims of victory came just hours after the National Electoral Council reminded parties that such announcements were prohibited and violators would be fined. The claims raised fears of street protests and violence and some businesses on Tegucigalpa’s main boulevard boarded over their windows as a precaution.
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Who is the real Ghislaine Maxwell: Epstein enabler or pawn?
NEW YORK (AP) – Ghislaine Maxwell spent the first half of her life with her father, a rags-to-riches billionaire who looted his companies’ pension funds before dying a mysterious death. She spent the second with another tycoon, Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself while charged with sexually abusing teenage girls.
Now, after a life of both scandal and luxury, Maxwell’s next act will be decided by a U.S. trial.
Starting Monday, prosecutors in New York will argue that even as she was sipping cocktails with the likes of Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Maxwell, 59, was secretly abetting Epstein’s crimes with girls as young as 14.
A key question for jurors: Was Maxwell an unwitting pawn of Epstein’s manipulations or an opportunist who knew all about his sex crimes?
Ian Maxwell says his sister is being railroaded by a U.S. criminal justice system intent on holding someone responsible for Epstein’s crimes.